On a Serious Note

Sometimes I take the time to reflect on what's going on around me, whether the actions are my own or my friends' actions, whether it's something that directly or indirectly affects me or perhaps does not involve me at all. I went to a couple of parties this past weekend for the first time in a while. A few of my friends commented on how I appeared to have fallen from the face of the earth but I needed the time to myself. As nice as it was to get back into the scene and reconnect I find myself frustrated once more with the games people are constantly playing. Everyone does it and I will not sit here and pretend to be one hundred percent innocent myself, but the question is why?

An example I noticed this past weekend: a good friend of mine really likes this girl. He introduced Allie (my good friend and partner-in-crime) and I to her this weekend and we all got along swimmingly. She's a very pretty girl, very energetic and seems sweet. The problem is that she has a long-term boyfriend, and by long-term I mean five years. He is a Marine and I am assuming he's deployed since he made no appearance. The problem with the situation is that this girl, like many others, wants to have her cake and eat it too. She has this alleged great boyfriend who she loves and adores, yet in his absence she feels it is alright to spend ample amounts of time with my friend, cuddle with him, stay up all night having conversations and so on. Am I crazy for finding this so appalling? Luckily my friend is smart enough not to spend (waste) too much time on the situation. He mentioned he's going to give it a few more days and if things do not start progressing in his direction he will let her go. I say good for him. In fact more people should employ logic in these types of situations and learn to set aside feelings. Emotion is what gets people in trouble. The truth is if someone is not willing to put you first and reciprocate, regardless of his or her reason and regardless of how much you may care, he or she is not the right person. I don't care who you are; you can do better.

Plainly and simply I wish it were more common practice for people to be up-front. Say one is in a relationship. Suddenly it becomes long-distance and one feels that it will no longer work, so why does one not say so? It's difficult to let go but is it worth the risk of being unfair to that person or to yourself? Or if one is dating someone and finds interest in another person, why not be honest instead of cheating? Even if one has just met someone why can one not be frank and say, "Hey, you're pretty awesome and I want to spend more time with you," rather than having to "play it cool" and feign disinterest?

Honesty is already extremely important to me; however I am making it a personal goal to be more forthright with people on what I want or how I am feeling, whatever the case calls for. I have a limited amount of time left here in the company of my friends and I do not plan to waste it on silly mind games.

Happy Monday! It's a rainy one here.